Capturing screens as images using PrintScreen?

[I][edited from support email][/I]

I need to be able to obtain an exact image of what DirectRT presents to participants so that I can use it to draw Areas of Interest that we need for our eye tracker. The tracker manual suggests we use PrintScreen the command and paste this into Paint to make .bmps, however, DRT will not allow us to do this... When we do try this method, we get only a black background without the image. We also tried using some MS software to capture the image but that too didn't work. Any ideas? For some reason, when we compare the location (not size) of images produced separately from the different sources (in Paint and DRT), they do not line up precisely. So it seems that the PrintScreen approach would be very useful.

As you have discovered PrintScreen doesn’t work in DirectRT the same way it does in MediaLab. Because DirectRT uses full screen DirectX graphics, PrintScreen will not capture anything from the sessions--you can only use it to create images to use in the sessions. Fortunately, there are some easy to use shareware programs out there that allow you to capture screens during DirectX applications. For a quick sampling, try [URL="http://empirisoft.com/support/www.download.com"]www.download.com[/URL] and search on the terms 'screen capture directx'. One that I have tried successfully is called Fraps. Install it, run it, and just press f10 whenever you want to grab a screen--Fraps will save the DirectRT screens as images (jpg or bmp) automatically in the Fraps installation folder. Couldn’t be easier. Apparently, it will also allow you to make movie clips of your sessions (or any part of them), but I haven't tried that functionality yet. At last report it was free to try for two weeks, or $37 to buy it.


Added 3/10/2008
[I][edited from support email][/I]
[QUOTE]
Also, just as an FYI, the site mentions using Fraps for screen shots. This may work, but my TA in Lexington has been trying this. He finally switched to a program call Snagit and had more success getting the screen shots. In Fraps, he just got the black or white background for the stimulus presentation. But, the stimuli themselves would not show up in the screen shot.
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How do I have a fixation point never leave the screen while I present words and shapes around it. I tried using the powerpoint --> bitmap technique to show the picture, but because the screenshot covers the entire screen, it covers up the fixation point that I have on the screen when it presents the picture. So what I did was capture a fixation point and the object as an entire picture...but there's a presentation delay and a slight movement of the fixation point by doing this. If you have a solution to this, please
let me know.

Not sure why the cropped images would cover up the fixation point. Are you using a clear value of 0 for your shape stimuli (e.g., "x,y,0" as your LOC values)?